We are pleased to announce that LLD Landscape Architect, Ruth Chittock has been awarded the Landscape Institute 2017 Student Travel Award. The awarded grant of £750.00 will enable her to travel to the US to undertake a research project on how landscape can have positive impacts on health and well-being.

Ruth, who has just completed her Masters in Landscape Architecture at Kingston University, chose to focus her study on the adverse effects on health and well-being of light pollution, and how landscape design can ameliorate these impacts.

She will visit the Great Basin National Park, a designated Dark Sky Park in Nevada, in September.‘The night sky is ingrained in human culture,’ Ruth said. ‘It is a universal heritage which we share with millions of people across the globe and it has inspired generations of poets, philosophers, scientists, and writers alike. My aim is to investigate how light pollution is leading to the loss of our night skies and how this is affecting us both physically and mentally. I am really excited to meet with people who are working to protect this incredible natural heritage and try to understand what can be done in the future.’